Ontario child care advocates press ahead

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, elected in the June provincial election, was the only major political party not to promise more licensed child care, or take steps to address high parent fees. Instead, the new Premier Doug Ford said a PC government would put in place a $389 million/year tax rebate program to cover various child-related expenses from babysitting costs to child care.

“Before and during the election we were closer in Ontario than we have ever been to big child care reform including promises of tens of thousands of new spaces, plans to make licensed child care affordable, and specific measures to improve the wages of the child care workforce,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now.

“It is imperative that we do everything we can to keep the momentum going and keep the pressure on the policy makers regardless of the election outcome,” she said.

Carolyn Ferns, policy co-ordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and Child Care Now board member told concerned parents and supporters as soon as the election results were known, “the next few years will be a challenge for our community, but child care advocates don’t back down from a challenge!”